Hurricane Maria - In quotes and pictures

"So far we have lost all what money can buy and replace. My greatest fear for the morning is that we will wake to news of serious physical injury and possible deaths as a result of likely landslides triggered by persistent rains....

"Come tomorrow morning we will hit the road, as soon as the all clear is given, in search of the injured and those trapped in the rubble.

I am honestly not preoccupied with physical damage at this time, because it is devastating...indeed, mind boggling. My focus now is in rescuing the trapped and securing medical assistance for the injured.

"Over the past month, four major Atlantic hurricanes have swept across the ocean. This year’s hurricane season is already the most violent on record, and it will continue until the end of November.

The season fits a pattern: changes to our climate are making extreme weather events more severe and frequent, pushing communities into a vicious cycle of shock and recovery.
Extreme weather linked to climate change has an impact all over the world, including floods in southern Asia and landslides and droughts in Africa.

Reducing carbon emissions must clearly be part of our response, together with adaptation measures. We must be able to bend the emissions curve by 2020. The rise in the surface temperature of the ocean has had an impact on weather patterns; and we must do everything possible to bring it down."

"The world and its leaders can no longer pretend that increasingly shattering catastrophes like Hurricane Irma are some kind of accident or coincidence. There is absolutely no doubt that climate change is real and it's triggering the full extent of nature's fury. How much more destruction do we need to act? Rising ocean temperatures are likely to result in hurricanes with greater intensity."

Richard Branson’s blog during Climate Change Week, marked at the UN

source: UK DFID

“I have had concerns about the way foundations are cut on people's properties and so we will take a very serious look at the Building Code again. It’s important.”

British Virgin Island Premier Orlando Smith. He said that his government had been evaluating the territory’s Plannng Act over the last year.